Since 1961, Chile's highest minimum average temperature was recorded in 1997, at 7.2 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the Latin American country registered its second highest minimum temperature – 7.1 degrees Celsius – in 2016. That same year, Chile's maximum average temperature reached a record high.

Temperature data classified as maximum, mean, and minimum temperature and relative humidity measures from the meteorological station located at the regional airport in Bogota and Buenos Aries, called the National Service of Hydrology and Meteorology. Mexico data was collected from the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico and National Meteorological System. In Santiago, Chile weather data was provided by the air pollution monitoring network with stations across the city, the REDCAM2 (Red de Monitoreo Automatica de la Calidad del Aire Metropolitana) Automatic Monitoring Network of Metropolitan Air Quality. The data from these stations were averaged to obtain temperature values for the Gran Santiago region. Daily temperature and relative humidity readings were made by automatic-recording instruments.

AbstractHaematocrit, the proportion of blood comprising erythrocytes, is often used as a proxy of individual condition. Nestling haematocrit is influenced by several factors, but ambient temperature is generally agreed as a key driver. It is unclear which day(s) in embryonic or nestling development are most influential in determining pre-fledgling haematocrit. This is important, because if we are able to identify what day(s) nestlings are physiologically most vulnerable to climatic conditions, this may inform future conservation management and help mitigate the effects. We investigated the effect of ambient temperature, precipitation, body size, brood size, age, food abundance and habitat on nestling haematocrit in Aphrastura spinicauda (thorn-tailed Rayaditos). We collected this data from two climatically different locations in Chile: Northern Patagonia (Pucón) and Sub-Antarctic Patagonia (Navarino Island), located ~1800 km further south. We aimed to identify the key drivers of nestling haematocrit and find when nestlings are physiologically most vulnerable to climatic conditions. We confirm that ambient temperature is the key driver of nestling haematocrit, with increasing ambient temperatures nestling haematocrit decreased. However, precipitation also affected haematocrit in the late incubation stage. At low and high precipitation, nestling haematocrit was low and is optimal in light rainfall. Our results show a delayed effect of ambient temperature and precipitation in late incubation and on the day of hatching which can determine pre-fledgling haematocrit, which may cause lower post-fledgling fitness. We found that climatic conditions on the day haematocrit was collected were not important in determining haematocrit. We found that haematocrit was higher in the sub-Antarctic area and that higher temperatures and precipitation on the day of hatching will result in lower nestling haematocrit and poorer pre-fledgling condition. As atmospheric temperatures rise, nestling fitness is at risk. This is a threat to many bird species, especially those in locations vulnerable to climate breakdown., MethodsData were collected from two climatically contrasting sites in Chile: one on Navarino Island (54.932° S, 67.605° W), which was ~5 km in radius, and the other is in Pucón (39.272° S, 71.977° W), which was ~10 km in radius and ~1800 km north of the other population. Data were collected in two years from September 2018 – February 2019 and from September 2019 – February 2020, during the Rayadito breeding season. These data were stored and processed in Microsoft Excel and R in RStudio v3.5.3 statistical software., Usage notesMicrosoft excel (CSV files) and R in RStudio v3.5.3 statistical software.

Metal pollution is a worldwide problem and one of the greatest threats to ecosystem integrity due to its toxicity, persistence, and bioaccumulation in biological systems. Anthropogenic pollution impacts marine organisms and host-parasite dynamics, with the northern Chilean coast experiencing elevated copper levels in marine waters and sediments due to mining activities. In this study, we assessed the effects of exposure to copper concentrations at low and high-water temperatures on the survival and longevity of the marine parasite Himasthla sp. cercariae (Trematoda: Digenea) using the snail Echinolittorina peruviana as its first intermediate host. Snails were collected from intertidal rocky pools in northern Chile (23°S). To assess parasite survival and longevity, cercariae were collected from a pool of infected snails, and their mortality was recorded every 6 hours until all cercariae were dead. In a preliminary experiment conducted at 19°C, cercariae were exposed to different copper concentrations (0.2, 1.5, 3.0, and 6.0 mg/L) for 78 hours. Cercariae showed tolerance to copper. However, at the higher copper concentration (6 mg/L), survival was negatively impacted (50%) at 54 hours. In contrast, at the lower concentration (0.2 mg/L) and in the control group, cercariae sustained a 73–90% survival rate even after 54 hours. Based on these findings, we conducted subsequent experiments involving two copper treatments (0.2 and 3.0 mg/L) and two temperatures (14 and 22°C). Survival and longevity were significantly higher at lower temperature and copper concentration (14°C and 0.2 mg/L). Conversely, at higher temperature and copper concentration (22°C and 3 mg/L), survival and longevity decreased to only 66 hours. Our results show that Himasthla sp. cercariae tolerated most copper concentrations, with vulnerability observed primarily in high water temperatures, indicating an adverse effect on cercariae performance. This study contributes valuable insights into how parasites respond to environmental pollution, in marine ecosystems influenced by anthropogenic activities.

Caribbean islands are usually the territories most affected by extreme climate events in the Americas. According to the Climate Risk Index (CRI), the Bahamas suffered the highest risk of extreme climate events in 2019, with a score of 6.5, mainly due to Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 hurricane. Among continental states in Latin America and the Caribbean, Bolivia had the highest risk in 2019, with 19.67 points. Mozambique was the most affected country by extreme weather worldwide in 2019.

Which South American countries are most prone to extreme weather? In the Southern Cone, also Paraguay, Chile, and Brazil were the most vulnerable countries to extreme weather in 2019, with a risk index of at least 30 points. These countries are usually affected by extreme rainfall and flooding causing landslides, as well as droughts, frequently intensified by the climate phenomena known as "El Niño" and "La Niña".

What made Bolivia a very vulnerable country to extreme environmental events in 2019? Bolivia is one of the South American countries most affected by wildfires. In 2019, over 44,000 forest fires were identified on Bolivian territory, which made it the year with the worst forest fire occurrences since 2010. Bolivia is one of the nine countries where the Amazon rainforest is located. The Andean state also registered heavy rainfall and flooding during 2019.

Predicting responses of coastal ecosystems to altered sea surface temperatures (SST) associated with global climate change, requires knowledge of demographic responses of individual species. Body size is an excellent metric because it scales strongly with growth and fecundity for many ectotherms. These attributes can underpin demographic as well as community and ecosystem level processes, providing valuable insights for responses of vulnerable coastal ecosystems to changing climate. We investigated contemporary macroscale patterns in body size among widely distributed crustaceans that comprise the majority of intertidal abundance and biomass of sandy beach ecosystems of the eastern Pacific coasts of Chile and California, USA. We focused on ecologically important species representing different tidal zones, trophic guilds and developmental modes, including a high-shore macroalga-consuming talitrid amphipod (Orchestoidea tuberculata), two mid-shore scavenging cirolanid isopods (Excirolana braziliensis and E. hirsuticauda), and a low-shore suspension-feeding hippid crab (Emerita analoga) with an amphitropical distribution. Significant latitudinal patterns in body sizes were observed for all species in Chile (21° - 42°S), with similar but steeper patterns in Emerita analoga, in California (32°- 41°N). Sea surface temperature was a strong predictor of body size (-4% to -35% °C-1) in all species. Beach characteristics were subsidiary predictors of body size. Alterations in ocean temperatures of even a few degrees associated with global climate change are likely to affect body sizes of important intertidal ectotherms, with consequences for population demography, life history, community structure, trophic interactions, food-webs, and indirect effects such as ecosystem function. The consistency of results for body size and temperature across species with different life histories, feeding modes, ecological roles, and microhabitats inhabiting a single widespread coastal ecosystem, and for one species, across hemispheres in this space-for-time substitution, suggests predictions of ecosystem responses to thermal effects of climate change may potentially be generalised, with important implications for coastal conservation.

PatagoniaMet v1.0 (PMET from here on) is a new dataset for Western Patagonia that consists of two datasets: i) PMET-obs, a compilation of quality-controlled ground-based hydrometeorological data, and ii) PMET-sim, a daily gridded product of precipitation, and maximum and minimum temperature. PMET-obs was developed using a 4-step quality control process applied to 523 hydro-meteorological time series (precipitation, air temperature, potential evaporation, streamflow and lake level stations) obtained from eight institutions in Chile and Argentina. Based on this dataset and currently available uncorrected gridded products (in this case ERA5), PMET-sim was developed using statistical bias correction procedures (i.e. quantile mapping), spatial regression models (random forest) and hydrological methods (Budyko framework). Details are given below.

• PMET-obs is a compilation of five hydrometeorological variables obtained from eight institutions in Chile and Argentina. The daily quality controlled data of each variable are stored in separate .csv files with the following naming convention: variable_PMETobs_timeperiod_version/timestep.csv. Each column represents a different gauge with its "gauge_id". Each variable has an additional .csv file containing the metadata for each station (variable_PMETobs_version_metadata.csv). In order to make transparent the possible erroneous data that were discarded from the quality-controlled version, a .zip file with the raw data of all variables is attached. The metadata file (final and raw versions) contains the station name (gauge_name), the institution, the station location (gauge_lat and gauge_lon), the NASADEM elevation (gauge_alt) and the total number of daily records (length). In addition, the precipitation and temperature metadata include the number of monthly outliers (step Nº3 in the methods) and the number of changepoints (step Nº4 in the methods).

The streamflow metadata file (Q_PMETobs_version_metadata.csv) contains more than just the location data. Following current guidelines for hydrological datasets, the upstream area corresponding to each stream gauge was delimited (.shp file in Basins_PMETobs_version.zip), and several climatic and geographic attributes were derived. The details of the attributes can be found in the README file. For the basins that were part of the hydrological modelling (and that achieved a Kling-Gupta efficiency greater than 0.5), the file Q_PMETobs_version_water_balance.csv is attached, which contains the water balance for each basin estimated for the period 1985-2019.

• PMET-sim is a daily gridded product with a spatial resolution of 0.05° covering the period 1980-2020. The data for each variable (precipitation and maximum and minimum temperature) are stored in separate netcdf files with the following naming convention: variable_PMETsim_1980_2020_v10d.nc.

Citation: Aguayo, R., León-Muñoz, J., Aguayo, M., Baez-Villanueva, O., Fernandez, A. Zambrano-Bigiarini, M., and Jacques-Coper, M. (2023) PatagoniaMet: A multi-source hydrometeorological dataset for Western Patagonia. Sci Data 11, 6 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02828-2

Code repository: https://github.com/rodaguayo/PatagoniaMet

Based on 76 surface sediment samples collected between ca. 22° and 44°S along the Chilean coast in the southeast Pacific Ocean, we report on the north-south distribution of opal content and diatom concentration, and the quantitative and qualitative composition of the preserved diatom community. Latitudinal differences in the siliceous signal reflect the influence of two main mechanisms of surface water production: coastal upwelling off northern and central Chile till ca. 38°S, and nutrient enrichment by the input of cold, southern, non-upwelling-associated waters south of ca. 38°S. The poleward increase in biogenic opal and diatom values parallels well the north-south increase of pigment concentration in surface waters as recorded by satellites. Between 22° and 33°S, where low pigment concentrations are measured, opal content and diatom concentration are mostly low (except at 22°-23°S). In contrast, both higher opal and diatom values at 34°-38°S and 41°-42°S correspond well with higher pigment estimations. Preserved diatom populations document the present-day dominant hydrographical conditions. Nutrient enrichment of surface waters due to coastal upwelling results in intensive production of diatoms off northern and central Chile, reflected by the predominance of the richly-composed association of Chaetoceros spores north of ca. 38°S. The diatom association shows that the area between 35° and 38°S is transitional. The abrupt decrease of Chaetoceros spores south of not, vert, similar38°S off Chile coupled with the enhanced contribution of Thalassiosira spp., representatives of high-productivity, low-temperature waters, points to the presumed high nutrient supply by the iron-limited, nutrient-rich Antarctic Circumpolar Water. The contribution of benthic diatoms reflects some lateral transport from the near-shore area into deeper positions south of 38°S.

The study of how climatic niches change over evolutionary time has recently attracted the interest of many researchers. Different methodologies have been employed principally to analyze the temporal dynamics of the niche and specially to test for the presence of phylogenetic niche conservatism. Menonvillea, a genus of Brassicaceae including 24 species, is distributed primarily along the Andes of Argentina and Chile, with some taxa growing in southern Patagonia and others in the Atacama Desert and the Chilean Matorral. The genus is highly diversified morphologically but also presents a remarkably wide ecological range, growing from the high Andean elevations, to the dry coastal deserts in Chile, or the Patagonia Steppe in Argentina. In this study, we used molecular phylogenies together with climatic data to study climatic niche evolution in the genus. The results show that the main climatic niche shifts in Menonvillea occurred between the sections Cuneata-Scapigera and sect. Menonvillea throughout the Mid-Late Miocene, and associated with the two main geographical distribution centers of the genus: the highlands of the central-southern Andes and the Atacama Desert-Chilean Matorral, respectively. Climatic niches in these lineages were mainly differentiated by the aridity and potential evapotranspiration, the minimum temperatures of the coldest month, and the temperature annual range and seasonality. Niche evolution in Menonvillea deviated from a Brownian motion process, with most of the climatic dimension best-fitting to an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model of multiple adaptive peaks. Our results also indicated that higher aridity levels and lower annual temperature ranges were associated with the evolution of the annual habit, as exemplified by the distribution of sect. Menonvillea. Finally, the results suggested that climatic niche evolution in Menonvillea exhibited some degree of phylogenetic niche conservatism, fundamentally within the two main lineages (sect. Menonvillea and sects. Cuneata-Scapigera).

Results of regression analyses of body size of intertidal crustaceans as a function of latitude and sea-surface temperature for populations in the southern hemisphere (Chilean coast: data for December 1998—January 1999).